Goodbye Courtside, Hello DukesOfJMU

Thank you to everybody who followed and commented on this blog during the past couple months. As much fun as I had interacting with CAA fans across the east coast, the forum will have to change.

Due to a  partnership between the Daily News-Record and Rivals.com, this blog – at least in its current form – will cease to exist.

Instead, I direct you to DukesOfJMU.com, a new website devoted exclusively to JMU football and men’s basketball.

Subscribers will get up-to-the-minute notes from Mike Barber and me, access to photo galleries, recruiting news, Q&A’s and an exclusive message board.

In addition, every JMU story we print in the newspaper will be immediately posed on DukesofJMU.com.

If you subscribe to the site, you also gain access to content at all of Rivals’ other college sites (except for their message boards).

It will cost $9.95 a month or $100 a year. We are giving you a two-week trial for free.

Sorry to those who enjoyed my JMU tidbits while they were free. Technically, I’m not really allowed to mention JMU athletics on this blog anymore, but hopefully I will find another way to keep it active.

JMU’s basketball season begins today, so I’d be remiss not to direct you to a quick run-down previewing the Dukes’ first game. It just happens to be at an all new place…

http://jamesmadison.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1292984

Studious Canisius Calling Check Mate?

Tom Parrotta

When it opens its season Sunday, James Madison will host a team that was well-represented at the Final Four last year.

No, Canisius (15-15 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) wasn’t involved on the court, but fans in Houston got the chance to read about the Golden Griffins.

A story in the official Final Four program highlighted how all five of the team’s seniors graduated in three years – three of them earning their masters degree before their basketball eligibility expired. The Griffs stay on the Buffalo campus through the summer and knock out credits while other students knock around beach balls.

“We’re kind of churning them out, guys that graduate in three years and get their masters in four,” coach Tom Parrotta, a former Hofstra assistant, said. “It’s gotten us in the door, recruiting-wise.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean the Griffs will outsmart their opponents. Asked if the team is especially heady on the court, Parrotta said, “no.” Especially this year, when he is trying to incorporate five freshmen to a team that lost five seniors, including four starters.

Still, he joked that his group would probably have a better chance against James Madison if the activity being played this weekend were different.

“So if you guys want to have a chess match in addition to a basketball game, we’re open to that as well,” the coach quipped.

Canisius is well-rounded in a worldly way too. Including Kansas State transfer Freddy Asprilla, who won’t be active Sunday against the Dukes, seven of the 15 Griffins are foreign-born (three from Puerto Rico, one Colombia, one the Netherlands, one Dominican Republic, one Uganda.)

“I’ve always done that,” Parrotta said. “We’re under the mindset that players are players are players and they’re all over.”

But Parrotta’s players lack offensive firepower that JMU coach Matt Brady’s players have this season. While the Dukes scored 98 points in an exhibition game win over Division II Philadelphia last month, the Griffins scored 98 points in two scrimmages, combined, against Colgate and a Division II team from Puerto Rico.

They did happen to win both though, according to Parrotta.

“But we played 5 on 4,” he said.

[Pause]

“I’m kidding.”

Brady Goes Ham(s)

 James Madison basketball coach Matt Brady made his first appearance of the new season Monday at Ham’s restaurant, for what will be a weekly press conference.

Here are the key talking points.

Once a Duke, Never a Duke: James Millen transferred to JMU from Cincinnati State Community College before last season but was deemed academically ineligible to play in 2010-11. To play this year, he needed to apply for a waiver through the NCAA to expand his eligibility clock to six years. The Dukes found out Friday that Millen’s waiver was denied, meaning Millen will have played zero games in his two years at Madison.

BRADY on MILLEN: “James Millen, who’s as good as anyone on my team I think, he’s as good as anybody in that gym on any given day,” Brady said. “He’s a really good player, he’s a great kid. He’s one of my favorite players I’ve ever coached. So he’s heartbroken, we’re heartbroken for him. It really hurts us. Had he been eligible, we could have talked of redshirting maybe another guy.

“It’s one of those things, when you deal with the NCAA, we’ve been the beneficiary in a couple different instances with Gene [Swindle] and Humpty [Hitchens] where it worked to our favor [both players were granted immediate eligibility after transferring to JMU]. This time it didn’t work to our favor. As badly as I feel for our program because I think he’s a significant player in this league. He can guard anybody and he can score on anybody in this league, I feel worse for James because I think he has a chance to be a very good college basketball player.”

Brady said Millen is still focused on earning his degree and might become a student assistant for the team, which would keep him on the practice court.

Still Rolling in the Deep: JMU’s rotation consisted of seven regulars last season, while an eighth guy would get maybe 10-15 minutes per game. Brady expects, at least at this point in the season, that the rotation will be larger this season.

BRADY on HIS ROTATION: “It’s eight for sure. When Devon [Moore] comes back it’s nine. I don’t know that it will get longer than nine. We have to figure these freshmen out. Certainly two of them are deep in the rotation. Arman Marks and Enoch Hood are both guys that can make shots. They make shots, they make plays, they’re athletic as heck. They just care about helping the team win. They’re really good players. Keynan [Pittman] – we could be sitting here in three years, he could be the best of all of them. … They don’t have to produce and we could be really good. That’s the difference between now and a couple of years ago.”

Redshirt Rumblings: Asked if any of the Dukes would redshirt this season, Brady was coy at first, but began to reveal some of his intentions as more questions came his way.

BRADY on REDSHIRTING: “I think for their benefit, it might be great to redshirt [the freshmen]. We’re still trying to build a program, we’re still trying to get to the very top of this league, so you have to balance that with the best interest of our team right now.”

Is Pittman the likeliest redshirt among the freshmen. And could junior Alioune Diouf possibly sit out this year?

“We would consider both. If another one of the freshmen got hurt for a month, I would gladly sit one of them down if I thought Devon was coming back.”

“Alioune, we’ve taken steps to safeguard his eligibility for an additional year. Keynan, we haven’t had to make that decision yet, but that comes now. I haven’t had that conversation with Keynan, that will probably happen tomorrow.”

Starting at Center : Juniors Trevon Flores and Gene Swindle (a Virginia Tech transfer) will battle for the starting center position, and the race is coming down to the final week.

BRADY on HIS CENTERS: “[Swindle is] a good player. We really like him. And he’s a different player. He’s a physical, low-post guy who can rebound, who’s got some scoring ability, who has some great intangibles, who just wants to do whatever he can to win. He’s a lot different than the guy we had there last year [Denzel Bowles]. He’s not as good of a scorer but he brings a lot to the table that will not show up in the stat sheet.

“Trevon has made a jump. He understands that he is needed to be a big part of this team, and he’s playing with a little bit more energy than he did last year and that’s a good thing. We don’t need either guy to be all-league players, we just need them to be energetic, role players for us. And if they’re energetic role players, then we’ll be pretty good.

Who starts?

“You know what it’s probably going to come down to? Who practiced well the last couple days. I think that’s the way it should be and for the first time since I’ve been here, that’s probably the way it’s gonna go. They’re different players. Trevon is certainly more perimeter-oriented. Gene is a guy that feels very comfortable scoring the ball with his back to the basket and has more ability with his back to the basket than Tevon. But they’re both long, long guys who can guard. My intention when I got here was always to be long and tall in the frontcourt, and we are. … We’ll be able to guard the fives and the fours in this league, without a lot of help.”

What’s Goins On: As of Monday morning, power forward Rayshawn Goins still hadn’t practiced this year after suffering a right ankle sprain. His injury may have set him back in the conditioning department, which has Brady taking a new approach.

BRADY ON GOINS “To me, this is going to be an ongoing issue. The simple thing about it is though, if he’s not fit and he can’t play the style of defense we need him to play, for the first time since I’ve been here, that guy just ain’t playing. Because we have enough. This is the other untold story. I could have said that this year: If. You. Don’t. Play. Defense. You. Won’t. Play. Well, then I’m really talking about one or two guys and I wasn’t going to win 21 games. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite and sit here and say, ‘If you don’t hedge a ball-screen, you’re coming out of a game.’ Actually I can now say it and our guys all know it. … I never said it [last year] because I thought it was important for our program to make strides at winning and establish ourselves in the league, and now here we are picked in the top half of the league for the third time in three years.”

Opponent No. 1: JMU opens its season Sunday against Canisius in a return game from a Bracketbusters matchup two years ago.

BRADY on CANISIUS: “I don’t know a damn thing about them for Sunday. They have a whole new starting five. They graduated five guys. … I know they toyed around with playing a zone defense for a little bit. We probably won’t get tape on them. But I have a sense of how they’ll play from playing against them previously [both two seasons ago and when Brady was in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with Marist]. We’ll see, but we’ll have the advantage because we’re at home.”

One last note: Late last week, JMU cheerleader Nick Keatts died in his sleep. His presence at games and in the community will certainly be missed.

I met Nick two years ago when he covered a high school football game as a stringer for the Daily News-Record. I didn’t know at the time that he was a cheerleader and sometimes the man under the Duke Dog mask.

But from then on, every time I saw him at a JMU sporting event, we’d greet and he’s always have a giant smile on his face – just happy to be supporting his school. After performing stunts with the cheerleaders during basketball games, Nick would always leap and slap the backboard on the way off the court. It was as if he couldn’t find enough ways to show the energy he had for the Dukes.

Looking at his Facebook page this weekend, it was obvious that Nick touched more than just backboards. Hundreds of friends left messages in support of the young man who was constantly enthusiastic and friendly.

Hopefully Nick’s fingerprints are still on those backboards, just as they are, figuratively, on JMU athletics.

JMU will be hosting a memorial service for Nick on Tuesday at 4 p.m., at the Convocation Center: http://www.jmusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205329318&DB_OEM_ID=14400

Guess Who’s Bizzack?

 

If this blog were ESPN Magazine, this post would be the “Back Issue.”

The CAA’s Preseason Player of the Year is BACK: After breaking his left foot in a summer league game, Old Dominion swingman Kent Bazemore could have missed up to two months of games. It appears he’ll miss none.

As Ed Miller reports, Bazemore played in the Monarch’s preseason game Friday night, scoring seven points in six minutes during the first half.

This is an immeasurably huge plus for ODU, which lost three other starters to graduation and wouldn’t have had a go-to guy without Bazemore in the lineup.

Not to mention, Baze is the Colonial’s two-time defending Defensive Player of the Year. While it may take him some time to return to his Spiderman antics, the senior’s presence alone should make his younger teammates better.

Brady’s trial pushed BACK: Originally scheduled for Nov. 14 – a day after JMU’s season-opener at home against Canisius – jury selection for the Marist College vs. Matt Brady trial was moved to April 27 after the sides met for a conference on Wednesday.

Now, Brady, JMU’s fourth-year coach who is being sued by previous employer Marist for a supposed breach-of-contract regarding recruits, won’t have to shuttle between Harrisonburg to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., throughout the year. He’ll get a full season of practices and games uninterrupted by litigations.

Basketball soon to be BACK: Itching to see college basketball again? A CAA team will be in action Monday, when William & Mary kicks off its season at St. John’s as part of the 2K Sports Classic (the game, scheduled for 7 p.m., will be televised on ESPNU).

The Tribe is banged up, and obviously less athletic than St. John’s across the board. But W&M is the type of team that can shoot its way to an upset against a more heralded opponent.

Plus, this year’s Red Storm isn’t quite the unit that reached the NCAA tournament last year. Steve Lavin lost nine seniors, including his top five scorers. This year’s squad has five freshmen, including Name Hall-of-Famer Sir’Dominic Pointer (not to be outdone, God’sgift Achiuwa is the team’s big junior college transfer. You can’t make this stuff up).

Get your seats BACK: At CAA Media Day I joked with Northeastern coach Bill Coen that, with the Celtics and the entire NBA locked out, Huskies basketball would be the main sports attraction in Boston this winter.

“Don’t count out Tom Brady,” Coen responded. “He has a little something to do with it.”

Sure, TB12’s Patriots will likely play into January again, but for Bostonians to get their basketball fix, they’ll need to look elsewhere.

Northeastern’s marketing department has devised a promotion for those forlorn Celtics fans. NBA season ticket holders will get half off NEU season tickets – giving them a dozen games for just $50.

Jonathan Lee may be no Rajon Rondo, but at least he’ll be playing basketball this winter.

Georgetown Coming To Town

guhoyas.com

The last time a Big East men’s basketball team came to the Convocation Center, James Madison upset it 70-64. That was back in December of 2008 – Matt Brady’s first year with the Dukes – when Seton Hall rolled in with an 8-2 record and were outplayed by Juwann James, Devon Moore and Co.

This Saturday, another Big East team will drive through University Boulevard to take on the Dukes. OK, it won’t mean anything, and no spectators or media members will be permitted to watch, but John Thompson III’s Georgetown Hoyas will be in town for a closed scrimmage.

“They’re going to be big and strong and really aggressive and I think they’re going to be really good defensively,” Brady said of scrimmaging the Hoyas, who will provide one last taste of alien competition before JMU begins its season on Nov. 13 at home against Canisius.

A quick G’Town run-down:

• The Hoyas finished 21-11 last season after losing their final five games, including a 74-56 drubbing at the hooves of VCU in the first second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• They lost their best two players from last season’s, guards Chris Wright and Austin Freeman. Jason Clark, Hollis Thompson and Henry Sims are their most notable returners.
• Georgetown was picked to finish 10th in the Big East this season. But that’s like George Clooney picking a Bugatti as the 10th favorite car he owns.
• Trivia: Which team was picked 10th in the Big East last preseason?
• Answer: Some school named UConn, which went on to win not only the conference but the national title.
• JMU is a fairly tall team this year, with four players over 6-foot-8. Georgetown has seven guys that tall.
• The Hoyas are also very young. They have six freshmen, including prize recruit Otto Porter, who will be a quality player if his game is anywhere near as good as his name.

That’s all the scouting you need for Saturday’s game, which no one can watch. In fact, the Dukes don’t plan to scout Georgetown, much like they didn’t scout Philadelphia before their exhibition game last week. They’re more focused on self-improvement at this point, so there’s no need to get bogged down with Hoya paranoia.

Exhibition Recap: Red Knows Best

“Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.”

Who knew Red Auerbach followed James Madison?

The regular season hasn’t started yet, so JMU and Philadelphia decided to treat their exhibition Wednesday like a glorified pick-up game. The teams combined to shoot 55 percent for the game. Philly shot 72.7 percent in the first half and 100 percent in the opening nine minutes. Jim Connolly may be a 6-3 guard for a Division II team but for one night the lefty was Chris Mullin, as he torched JMU for 33 points.

And still, the Dukes won 98-88, thanks to 29 points by A.J. Davis (boy is he fun to watch on offense) and 25 from Humpty Hitchens (we already knew how fun he is to watch on both ends).

Madison coach Matt Brady seemed only mildly concerned with the defensive woes. He knows his group has practiced just 10 times and that it’s still October. But the Dukes have a wayyyys to go if they want to call themselves a good defensive team.

Apparently, even if Bill Russell is on your roster, it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.

(Side note that seems festive nearing Hallowen: Red Auerbach died on October 28, 2006. It was a Saturday and I was at a Maryland/Florida State “blackout” football game that was clinched when the Terrapins blocked a kick in the final minute. When news of Red’s death reached me after the game, I scrambled together a cigar, sport coat and floppy 80s corduroy Celtics hat and had myself a commemorative costume for the evening’s Halloween parties. It was one of the most poorly executed costumes to date. Since then, I’ve perfected Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn and Lil’ Wayne, and have settled on the latter for this year’s holiday. )

Back to Wednesday’s exhibition:

Key Stat: (6) OK, the key stats are really those high shooting numbers, but we’ve covered that already. Six is a low number and that’s good for the Dukes when it’s representing how many turnovers they committed. Philly is not the type of team that’s going to force turnovers, but a half-dozen is still impressive for the Dukes, who  A.) were using their two-guard (Hitchens) as a point guard, B.) were using a freshman wing (Arman Marks) as a backup point guard, and C.) had about a million possessions Wednesday.

Key Quote: “We’re not really worried about our offense. Like Coach said, we gave up 50 points in the first half to them. In the first half they shot [nearly] 75 percent and one kid was 7-for-7. So we’re really not worried about our offense. We have to pick up our defense if we want to be a March Madness team.”

-Humpty Hitchens

What we learned: - A.J. Davis comes as advertised.

- Gene Swindle is certainly a serviceable CAA center. He’ll battle, make some shots, rebound the ball and give fouls. Trevon Flores looked more comfortable than he has in the past, but Swindle seemed to have more of an impact.

- Freshman Arman Marks still appears skittish running the point, but he will hit an open 3. CAA Deputy Commish Ron Bertovich, my next-door neighbor during Wednesday’s game, said Marks reminded him of fellow lefty Vertrail Vaughns of George Mason.

- Freshmen bigs Enoch Hood and Keynan Pittman are long and athletic and will give effort. But they are probably both a year away from joining the rotation on a consistent basis. Hood seems to be a little more advanced offensively.

- The team will miss Devon Moore (no duh). Call me crazy after watching a team score 98 points, but the offense didn’t look like it had very much  flow. Davis said that was because it was so early in the season and they only operated out of a few sets. Brady said he’s most concerned with where the Dukes will get their points in crunch time of a close game now that Denzel Bowles is gone. But those tough stretches could come even more often if defenses aren’t giving Davis Arian Foster-type holes to dribble through.

The Duke’s Crown Goes To… A.J. Davis (although, like his 29 points, nine rebounds and six assists, it doesn’t count toward the officially tally.) The guy is just so smooth, both in getting to the rim and finishing at it. He knows how to make lay-ups, which should not be understated. He also shot 10-of-13 from the free-throw line and even hit a 3-pointer, which may come as a surprise because he was 5-for-50 from deep in two seasons at Wyoming. Brady had to call Davis into his office Tuesday to discuss his inconsistent effort in practice. Davis was energetic in 32 minutes Wednesday. It will be interesting to see if he and Julius Wells can get it going simultaneously, or if the two wings will sort of take turns in terms of big scoring nights.

JMU Preseason Primer

jmusports.com

The 2011-12 installment of the James Madison basketball team will be on display for the first time Wednesday night, when the Dukes host an exhbition game at 7 p.m., against Philadelphia University (a Division II team coached by recent Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Herb Magee).

These Dukes are different than the ones we saw last, being pummled 85-65 by Davidson in the CBI Tournament. So before you ask where’s he? and  who’s that?, read on.

And with the actual season 2 ½ weeks down the corner, there are some longer-term issues to consider as well.

- And starting for your Dukes…  Right now Humpty Hitchens and Andrey Semenov are the only two players coach Matt Brady has penciled in as “starters” for the regular season. Best guess is that senior Julius Wells and junior Wyoming transfer A.J. Davis, and junior center Trevon Flores join them in the pre-game announcements Wednesday.

Hitchens will slide from the “2” to point guard – a position he played at Akron – in Devon Moore’s absence during the first semeseter.

Semenov was an ace sixth man last year because his skillset is so diverse that he could fill the void of any exiting player, whether the Dukes needed to replace shooting, rebounding, defending or passing. He’ll get the nod early in the season because he’s been consistent throughout practice, whereas last year’s starting power forward, Rayshawn Goins, has yet to practice because of a high ankle sprain.

“Rayshawn’s injury has a lot to do with it,” Brady said. “Plus Andrey’s been playing really well. He’s been a good player and he’s here everyday and he’s healthy and shooting the ball well. He’s taking all good shots. He’s a challenge for our young guys to guard.”

 - Goins’ injury isn’t serious, except that it is… Goins was in good spirits and said he’d be back by next week, last time I spoke with him. While that may be true, this is the type of injury that could disrupt his senior season. The 6-foot-6, 275-pound forward was committed to shedding weight and becoming more fit this season. Knowing his personality – he’s a guy that takes nothing in life for granted and has learned the value of hard work in college – there was a good chance he’d get there.

But an ankle injury isn’t like a thumb injury. There’s not a whole lot of useful cardio – aside from churning out miles on a stationary bike – that a 275-pounder can do on one good foot.

Goins is going to have to play catch-up in the fitness game, and Brady might not have the patience for it. The fourth-year coach said a while back that if Goins wasn’t fit this year, he wouldn’t play. Brady feels he has the roster depth to motivate his players with the carrot of playing time. Goins has to show an undying work ethic when he gets back to maintain his spot as a key guy for this team.

-Crane your necks if you’re in the reserved seats…  In addition to a notebook, a pen and a tape recorder, I’m going to have to start bringing a step-stool to cover this year’s team. All 6-feet, 10 inches of Denzel Bowles are gone, but 6-11 Gene Swindle, 6-10 Keynan Pittman and 6-8 Enoch Hood joined the team, which already had the 6-11 Flores. This makes it tough on a 5-foot-8 reporter, but more pertinently, it should be tough on opposing offenses to finish at the rim. Hood smiled when he charecterized himself as a “shot blocker,” but let me down when he said he doesn’t do the Dikembe finger wag after swats. Maybe Flores, being the exeprienced Duke, will add it to his arsenal.

-Speaking of Flores…  Everyone is speaking of Flores – his coaches, his teammates, my barber (in fairness, I cut my own hair). The junior added some strength to his previously-giraffe-like frame and according to the Dukes, he’s got his post moves down pat.

Flores lost his mother at way too young an age during the summer. Connecting that type of personal situation to his basketball career isn’t fair. But Flores has been more focused and determined than ever, his teammates say. This could be the year his game ascends to the level the Dukes have always hoped to see.

-Keep your eyes on #30… That’s freshman Arman Marks, one of the most energetic, likeable players you’ll see. The Dukes have talked about chemistry issues hurting them for the past few seasons. Marks seems like the type of person who can singlehandedly alter the mood of an entire locker room, even as a freshman. He’s consistently the last guy staying after practice – “He’s as much a gym rat as I’ve had since I’ve been here,” Brady said – and he always looks happy.

“I go hard in practice to make the game easy,” Marks said. … “500 [shots] a day. That’s what Coach Brady made me do. He definitely pushes me. All the coaches push me, even players. They love to push me.”

At 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, Marks doesn’t have a freshman body, and he’s not afraid to show it either, typically taking his jersey off to reveal his cut physique once practice ends. He might not be a big-time contributor right away, but smart money says he will by the time he’s an upperclassman.

-Anyone else new? …  The Dukes have a new invited walk-on, sophomore guard Christian Pierce, a 6-5 shooter. Pierce was somewhat of a high school legend at Western Albemarle. Brady said before practice began that Pierce, who had been working out with the team last spring, might actually get a chance to play if he can stay in front of his man on defense. We’ll probably see him Wednesday, but not much more after that. Last year’s walk-ons, Andre Prince and Kevin McGaughey, combined for 24 minutes of garbage-time burn.

-D-Fence! D-Fence?…  It’s a question mark every year at JMU and will be a point of emphasis for the team in its exhibition game. Philadelphia runs a lot of halfcourt sets and screens away from the ball, somewhat similar to William & Mary. W&M was obviously a team the Dukes struggled to defend last year. If defense truly is the Dukes’ focus, they should absolutley suffocate a Division II team on Wednesday. Expect to see them toy with different presses and try to create ball-pressure across the court.

-How are Humpty’s handles? …  This will be the first extended look at Hitchens in the role of point guard. Brady won’t ask him to be a playmaker like Moore, but instead to just protect the ball and get the team into its halfcourt offense. While turnovers is an obvious stat to look at for any point guard, it’s espsically important for Hitchens. At 5-9 he doesn’t have the size to make some of the passes over defenders like Moore can, so it will be important for Hitchens to know his limitations and not try to do too much. Akron coach Keith Dambrot said this week that Hitchens was a “scoring point guard” for the Zips. Hitchens will still be able to provide a spark with his outside shooting, but his main task for these Dukes will be to play under control.

- Who looks good in street clothes?…  With Moore, James Millen and Goins all unavailable for the exhbition game, there may be times where there’s as much talent on the sideline as there is on the court. I’m just concerned with what they’ll be wearing. Moore, who sat out all of 2009-10 with a knee injury, set the standard for sideline attire – wearing a mint sweater vest one night, and bright red dress shoes the next. Millen, who spent all of last year off the court, took on a more casual look. Goins was a warmups-wearer when he missed two games last season.

Three New Coaches At The Poker Table

georgiastatesports.com

There are three new basketball coaches in the Colonial Athletic Association, and all three say they want their teams to play energetic basketball and win right away.

But Northeastern’s sixth-year man Bill Coen may have put it best when describing the situations of George Mason’s Paul Hewitt, Towson’s Pat Skerry and Georgia State’s Ron Hunter.

“Each guy has been dealt a different hand,” said Coen, who knows all three personally.

The analogy fits. Let’s take it further.

If we’re playing the popular poker game of Texas Hold ‘Em, here’s how I see each coach’s starting hand.

Hewitt (King-Jack, off-suit)- Hewitt doesn’t walk into a surefire winner, but he starts with one of the most talented teams in the CAA. He shouldn’t be afraid to push money into the pot early, and demand a lot of his cards. Drexel, right now, is the Ace in the deck that appears to have an advantage on Mason from the start, but if some good things happen throughout the season, Hewitt could be sitting on a jackpot. The former Georgia Tech coach said he will maintain the same style of play at Mason that helped him win 189 games as a Yellow Jacket: “Up-tempo, pressure, high-scoring style.”

Skerry (2-5, off-suit)- Skerry has a very low starting hand, and just based on talent alone, he’s overmatched against his opposition from the very start. Not all is bad in Towson. The Tigers have a new athletic director – Mike Waddell – who seems aggressive and focused, and Skerry has already shown that he can recruit. In Year 1, with one of the nation’s youngest teams, he’s going to have to grind and bluff a little if he wants to take some pots. It appears he already has that in his playbook. “I want to be good right away, honestly,” Skerry told me at media day, which prompted me to ask him if that was realistic.“We’ve got to find a way,” he answered. “We need to find a way.”

Hunter (7-8, suited)- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder with this hand. Sure the cards aren’t all that high – Georgia State doesn’t have any preseason first-or-second team representatives – but it’s got a great chance to materialize over the course of the season and become a winner. No-gap suited connectors are fun in poker because they have nice odds to turn into flushes and straights. While the Panthers don’t appear to be winners from the get-go (they were picked 11th in the conference), you’ve got to appreciate them as more than a sum of parts (I picked them seventh).

We know George Mason will be a top-tier team and that Towson will be at or near the bottom this season. But Georgia State… their mystery is intriguing. And so is their head coach, Hunter, who won 293 games in 17 seasons at IUPUI, and is probably best known for coaching barefoot for charity.

“Georgia State didn’t lose because it had a lack of talent,” Hunter said at media day. “Georgia State lost because it had a sense of always losing – them making excuses. That’s what’s changed.”

Count me as a believer that the Panthers will soon snap a seven-year streak of losing seasons.

They have as much athleticism as maybe anybody in the CAA, but never seemed to play with any offensive synch during former coach Rod Barnes’ tenure. Led by still-blooming senior power forward Eric Buckner, who Hunter called “a specimen,” the Panthers have enough to make any new coach titillated with their talent.

“If we’re the 11th-best team in a league of 12, then this is the best league in the country,” Hunter said about his group’s preseason ranking. “We should be in the Big 12 or the ACC [if we’re 11^th best], because I’ve got a talented basketball team.”

Hunter believes that sophomore guard Davonta White will be perfect in his run-and-gun system. He raved about senior Jihad Ali’s length and freshman Tony Kimbro’s athleticism.

Add in senior wings Brandon McGee and Josh Micheaux, and the pieces really do seem to fit into what Hunter is trying to build. But system takes a backseat to attitude, and that’s the aspect that might boost a previously stagnant program.

“At the end of the day, the kids have to buy into what you’re doing,” Hunter said. “It doesn’t matter what system you run, it doesn’t matter what offense [or] defense; the kids that you have, have to buy in. And once you get them to buy in, then you’ve got yourself a winner.

Hunter said his recruiting strategy is to nab “Kids. Who. Know. How. To. Win.” Your high school win/loss record is as important as your vertical leap measurement, to Hunter, who said he doesn’t want to have to teach his players how to win.

How does he relate this season to a group of seniors who still need to learn how to win at the college level?

“I’ve got seven seniors that have never won before,” Hunter said. “I told them this is the last time you’re gonna play college basketball, let’s make this the best basketball year you’ve ever had.”

And maybe they’ll hit a winning hand.

CAA Basketball In This Week’s DN-R

Each weekend I’ll post links to the CAA basketball stories that appeared in the previous week’s Daily News-Record.

(Yes, they’re paywalled. All the more reason to purchase a subscription. I’ll stop my salesman bit now.)

Wednesday: Dukes In Hunt? (JMU’s men’s team is picked fifth in the CAA, and coach Matt Brady’s outlook is positive).

Wednesday: Women Picked 3rd (JMU’s women’s team has won the last two CAA titles, but they lost a lot of talent and aren’t the favorites to 3-peat.)

Friday: North Rising In CAA? (For a change, it wasn’t a Virginia school and it wasn’t UNC-Wilmington picked to finish first in the CAA. How projected No. 1 Drexel has built a winner in the south-dominated CAA)

The CAA Book Club

Yesterday we tackled the CAA coaches’ favorite basketball movies. Today it’s books.

There was no Hoosiers-like popular choice, but a couple coaches referenced Pat Riley’s book (I’m assuming they meant The Winner Within, but neither knew the name of it).

“I use it a lot when I talk to my guys,” Brusier Flint said. … I always reference it. … [The message is] don’t talk about injuries. Don’t make the team miss the guy that’s out. How to deal with a star on the team and how to treat people, things like that.

Blaine Taylor is a Riley reader as well.

“It parallels life business with basketball. The basketball books that I hate are the ones that, January 7th: I got up, I had brunch. Had shootaround. Went and played University of Arizona. Post-game meal: spaghetti. Calipari and some of these guys write those books. Like, oh jeez. Get a life if you read one of those books. It’s like reading somebody’s diary.”

I’m praying Old Dominion plays Kentucky in an NCAA Tournament some day and Taylor tells John Calipari, “Hey, your book sucks,” while they shake hands.

As you can imagine, books by coaches are popular among coaches. The best college coach ever? John Wooden. Apparently his writings are valued too.

“I always refer back to them on a regular basis, the John Wooden books, and he has five or six of them out there,” Bill Coen said. “And they relate to life, they relate to basketball and they link the two. There’s so much wisdom in there and probably the greatest coach who’s ever coached in college. If you go back there, his wisdom is very simple and direct and it’s very useful.”

Shaka Smart is partial to another legendary coach’s teachings. His favorite book is Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson.

I was surprised initially surprised, because I think of Smart like this and think of Jackson like this, but Smart said there are definitely some similarities between the two coaches.

I’m really into the spiritual stuff like he is,” Smart said. “I’m my own guy. He’s got 10 or 11 NBA championship rings, so he’s a good guy to emulate.”

Only one coach actually had a copy of his favorite book handy when I asked. That was Buzz Peterson, who pulled a beaten hardcover of The Carolina Way out of a black bag.

“It always stays with me,” Peterson said of his former UNC coach Dean Smith’s book. “It never leaves me because there’s so much in here and I respect the man a lot … I correlate things in here to my team.”

Matt Brady tries to correlate what he reads to his team, but it isn’t from a basketball book, per se. He said he reads books like Outliers and Good To Go – practical books in which life lessons can be extracted.

“That’s the genre that I read,” Brady said. “I read stuff like that, that applies to athletics but is not necessarily about athletics.”

I mentioned Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule from Outliers – which basically says that it takes a human being 10,000 hours of practice to perfect a skill — and Brady talked about how he sees it, related to his sport.

“To me, ordinary people can do extraordinary things if put in the right situation, or more to the point, if you’re willing to put the time in,” Brady said. “To me, the Beatles, who are my favorite group, they were not a group that was destined for greatness until someone needed them to play 300 nights a year, and they honed their craft. … To become great at anything, it’s all about time.”

Paul Hewitt said he’s more interested in baseball books, citing The Summer Of 64 and The Last Good Season. Ron Hunter said he only reads religious books.

Back on the basketball track, Pat Skerry – a Medford, Mass., native –offered Basketball Junkie by former Boston Celtic and Fall River, Mass., native Chris Herron.

Monte Ross’s said A Season On The Brink while Mo Cassara claimed another John Feinstein work: The Last Amateurs

“It’s about the Patriot League before anyone had scholarships,” Cassara said. “I love that book. I think it details what college basketball is, or should be all about.”

It’s A Hoosiers-Happy League

CAA coaches are modern-day Norman Dales

You can tell a lot about a person by the movies they watch and rewatch. Like, if you were on a first date with a girl who said her favorite flick was Gigli, wouldn’t you terminate the potential relationship right there?

You can’t sever ties with your favorite CAA coach if you don’t like his movie selection, but it’s good to know where he stands.

While most of the other reporters at CAA Media Day were busy asking coaches about depth charts and parity, I was more curious about movies and books.  Here’s what everybody is watching (the book  club will be discussed another day).

FAVORITE BASKETBALL MOVIE:

5 – Hoosiers (Matt Brady, Mo Cassara, Bill Coen, Bruiser Flint, Buzz Peterson, Tony Shaver)

“I could watch that over and over and over,” said Buzz Peterson, who we also learned watches the DVD box set of the Andy Griffith show (purchased for more than $300, to his wife’s chagrin) over and over – sometimes instead of game film if he doesn’t feel like compounding a loss with more disappointment.  “My son and I watched [Hoosiers]. It’s motivation, just inspiring to watch that thing over and over.”

“How can you not go with Hooisers?” asked Coen, whose staff was ready to deport me to Guadeloupe when I suggested – gasp! – that maybe Hoosiers is a little overrated. “Just because it’s basketball in its pure form.  It’s high school basketball, it’s small vs. big, it’s David vs. Goliath. Some great acting and some great emotions.”

2 – None (Ron Hunter, Blaine Taylor)

“I don’t like basketball movies,” Taylor said. “They’re all fakies.” Ok.

How about you Mr. Hunter?

“There’s only one show I’ve ever watched; it’s American Idol. I don’t watch SportsCenter or anything. … You know why I like it? I love competing. I love competition.”

So he’s never seen a basketball movie but he’s seen General Larry Platt pull his Pants On The Ground?  Hunter said his all-time favorite Idol contestant was Season 2 victor Ruben Studdard. And Hunter himself claims to have pipes.

“I told my guys, we get to the point where we get to theNCAA Tournament, I’ll sing the national anthem.”

1 – Love & Basketball ( Monte Ross)

“I love the part at the end when [protagonist Quincy McCall, played by Omar Epps] says to [love interest Monica Wright], ‘Double or nothing.’”

Solid movie with a great late-80s R&B song, I Want To Be Your Man by Roger, on its soundtrack.

Ross’ assessment of Hoosiers: “ That’s overrated.” Join me in Guadeloupe, Monte!

1 – The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (Paul Hewitt)

In addition to Hewitt choosing the Dr. J movie as his go-to hoops flick, Flint also mentioned it as one of his faves, before settling on Hoosiers. Without an actual league to promote, NBATV has been showing The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh a lot recently. I’ll have to DVR it and check it out.

1 – One on One (Pat Skerry)

Skerry explained that One on One is a fictional movie about a small-town high school and its basketball phenom, played by Robby Benson, and suggested I watch it some day. I was more interested in what Skerry took from another movie: The new Towson coach battles his 6-year-old son with light sabers. “He wants to be a Jedi from Star Wars,” said Skerry, who uses the red saber, and admits that his green-wielding son often beats him.

1 – Hoop Dreams (Shaka Smart)

Ding, Ding, Ding. We have a winner.

I knew Smart was wise when he led VCU to the Final Four last year, but his choice in basketball movies is even more impressive. Hoop Dreams, a 1994 documentary about two Chicago teens and their path to college basketball is gritty, heart-wrenching and 100 percent genuine. (A little trivia via @Dukie95: Steve James, who wrote, directed and produced Hoop Dreams, is a 1977 JMU alum.)

“Real life, man,” Smart said. “Hoosiers was too, but I think Hoop Dreams relates much, much more to what we deal with in day-to-day reality.”

Shaka makes the best date. I wonder if he’d join me for a double-feature with Celtic Pride.

My favorite omissions: He Got Game, White Men Can’t Jump, Blue Chips.

Other notables: Teen Wolf, Basketball Diaries, Above The Rim, The Sixth Man, Coach Carter, Sunset Park, Space Jam, Like Mike, Glory Road, Semi-Pro, Eddie, Air Up There.

CAA Media Day: A Quarter (of an hour) With Matt Brady

In the next couple days Courtside will feature some lighthearted, fun stuff. But after spending a few hours transcribing the contents of my trusty Olympus recorder, here’s a quote-full post from my 15ish minutes today with James Madison coach Matt Brady.

There were plenty of questions asked and answered, so I’ve broken them up into general themes for your reading ease…

CAA Preseason Picks

Drexel — Courtside’s pick to win the Colonial Athletic Association — was the popular choice, as the Dragons have been selected first in the official CAA Preseason Poll.

Returning six of their top seven players, the Dragons are the only team to have a player represented on both the preseason first and second teams (senior forward Samme Givens and junior guard Chris Fouch, respectively).

JMU, which finished sixth last year, was picked to finish fifth, with point guard Devon Moore as a Second team selection. JMU hasn’t finished a season in the top five since 1999-2000, when it tied for first.

Moore might not be academically eligible to play during the first semester, but he would only miss one conference game if that’s the case. Last year, after returning from a tore knee that wiped out his entire 2009-10 season, the 6-4, 180-pounder averaged 11.3 points and 4.2 assists per game. He leads all returning CAA players in assists.

Here’s are the official  lists…

Predicted Order Of Finish

1. Drexel
2. George Mason
3. VCU
4. Old Dominion
5. James Madison
6. William & Mary
7. Delaware
8. Hofstra
9. Northeastern
10. UNC-Wilmington
11. Georgia State
12. Towson

First Team

G- Kent Bazemore (Sr.), Old Dominion

G/F- Bradford Burgess (Sr.), VCU

F- Samme Givens (Sr.), Drexel

G/F- Quinn McDowell (Sr.), William & Mary

F- Ryan Pearson (Sr.), George Mason

Second Team

G- Chris Fouch (Jr.), Drexel

G- Devon Moore (Jr.), James Madison

G- Mike Moore (Sr.) Hofstra

F- Keith Rendleman (Jr.), UNC-Wilmington

G- Devon Saddler (So.), Delaware

Season Preview: William & Mary Tribe

Quinn McDowell

2010-11 Record: 10-22 (4-14, 11th in CAA)

What happened last season: The Tribe couldn’t recover from the loss of three key seniors, and its young lineup hung in games but couldn’t win many. The team had a 12-win drop-off but upset James Madison in the first round of the CAA Tournament when Quinn McDowell couldn’t miss.

What’s Changed: All those young guns matured a year, and W&M lost just one starter – average center Marcus Kitts.

Key Team Stat: (63.0) Percent of the Tribe’s baskets that were assisted last year – ninth nationally and tops in the CAA. Ninth-year coach Tony Shaver always has his unit playing turnover-free, team basketball.  W&M annually cuts and passes as well as any other team in the league.

Key Player Stat: (15.5) Points per game last year by McDowell, the league’s top returning scorer. In fact, he’s the only player in the  CAA’s top 10 to come back. A sharp-minded sharpshooter, the 6-foot-6 forward scored 20-plus points eight times (also most among returners).

Who’s Vince: McDowell has what his coach calls an “Opie” look, but he’s a killer on the court. Just ask JMU. McDowell single-handedly ousted the confident Dukes from the CAA Tournament last year with a historic 35-point performance in which he made 10-12 field goals, 5-6 3-pointers and 10-11 free throws. McDowell averaged 18.6 points in wins and 14.1 in losses.

Who’s E: At least one group of league coaches voted for Brandon Britt as a second-team All-CAA player on their preseason ballot. The 6-1 guard was an All-Rookie last season after averaging 10.9 points and 2.2. assists per game. Quick and polished for a young player, Britt had a nine-game stretch in the middle of last season in which he averaged 15.4 points per game and never dipped below double-digits.

Entourage: Julian Boatner was a filthy outside shooter as a freshman (he made 40 percent of his treys and 49 percent from Jan. 19 forward), which makes him all the more scary as a sophomore. He and Britt have an undeniable on-and-off court chemistry and will be a dangerous duo for years. Speedy but uneven guard Kendrix Brown is the fourth returning starter. Forward Tim Rusthoven averaged 5.5 points per game as a freshman and displayed remarkable toughness for a player so skinny (the 6-9 210-pounder now weighs 230 according to W&M). Wings Kyle Gaillard and Matt Rum seem to make teams pay when people forget about them. JohnMark Ludwick returns for one more year of absurd shooting ratios: He attempted 10 2-pointers and 92 3-pointers (made 38 percent) last year. And oh, he’s 6-foot-8.

Realistic Goal: Go from almost-worst to almost-first behind consistently hot shooting and mistake-free play.

Tournament Chances: If it can play defense, the Tribe will contend for a CAA title, and maybe make it back to the NIT, where it lost to North Carolina in 2010.

DN-R Prediction: 5^th in the CAA*

 *(A previous preview of Old Dominion also had a prediction of 5^th. The Monarchs were actually predicted to finish 6th in the DN-R’s ballot.)

Season Preview: VCU Rams

Bradford Burgess

2010-11 Record: 28-12 (12-6, 4th in CAA)

What happened last season: The Rams went 3-5 in February to muddy their NCAA Tournament hopes, upset George Mason in the CAA Tournament semifinals, earned a controverisal bid to the ball, and proceeded to make this this happen, before losing to Butler in the Final Four. In short, they made the letters V-C-U recognizable, nationwide.

What’s Changed: Bright young coach Shaka Smart earned a nice little raise, but lost four of the most important five players – Jamie Skeen, Joey Rodriguez, Ed Nixon and Brandon Rozzell – in the team’s tournament run. He brought in a highly-rated recruiting class that might help soften those blows.

Key Team Stat: (12.4) Percentage of defensive possessions in which the Rams made a steal last year, tops in the CAA and 17th best nationally. The Rams will gear up for Havoc 3.0 (unlike Windows and AOL, they skip Havoc 2.1, 2.2, etc.) with a typical cast of athletic wings.

Key Player Stat: (5) In games that Darius Theus had five or more assists last year, the Rams went 5-0. That number becomes particularly important this season, with the 6-foot-3 Theus taking Rodriguez’s old job as the starting point guard. Some guy named Eric Maynor preceded Rodriguez in that role, which means the letters PG are particularly important at VCU.

Who’s Vince: You know that underground band you followed when it was small and off the radar, and then the band started to catch on, played during a late-night show or two, and before you knew it the band was considered hip,  making platinum albums and selling out arenas? That band, for me is Bradford Burgess. I fell for his game during his sophomore year, loved what he did last year (couldn’t believe he didn’t make any of the three All-CAA teams), and then watched him gain national recognition for his NCAA tournament performances, which included a 23-point outing against Purdue and a 26-point, game-winning bucket-making masterpiece against Florida State in the Sweet 16. Burgess – a 6-foot-6 225-pounder who can play shooting guard to power forward – is the most talented all-around player in the CAA, and as the Rams’ lone remaining star, he’ll get to prove it.

Who’s E: Let the Rob Brandenburg era begin in earnest. As a freshman last year he teased us with some 20-plus point performances, but ultimately earned inconsistent playing time because of inconsistent play (and more importantly, a deep core of veterans in front of him). The off-guard will have ample opportunities to blossom as a sophomore, and will llikely be a double-digit scorer for this year’s Rams.

Entourage: Theus won’t be an all-conference player like the previous Rams point guards, but he can be an above-average floor general in the CAA if he can shoot more efficiently (last year he made just 34.9 percent from the field and a don’t-even-bother-heaving 14.8 percent from 3-point range). Sophomore forward Juvonte Reddic has star potential. He’s a long 6-9, and can score if asked – last year no one asked; now they will. D.J. Haley was technically a starter as a freshman, in the same way that a kickoff specialist is a starter on a football team. Still, he’s 7 feet and can defend. The Rams have a half-dozen freshmen – many of whom received high ratings from scouting services. One of those freshmen, Reco McCarter, redshirted last year after choosing VCU over BCS-level schools.

Realistic Goal: The Final Four run invogorates the program to new levels, and the Rams don’t stop rolling – all the way to a CAA title.

Tournament Chances: Certainly a possibility, although this team, on paper, probably isn’t as strong as the one last year, which made it by the hair on Smart’s always-shaved head. (Then again, that team made the Final Four, so, by which standard would you like to make comparisons?)

DN-R Prediction: 3^rd in the CAA.

Season Preview: Towson Tigers

Robert Nwankwo

2010-11 Record: 4-26 (0-18, 12th in CAA)

What happened last season: Do we have to revisit it? We do? You sure? Ok, we’ll make it short then. The Tigers lost their last 19 games. They did not win a CAA game all season, which had never happened to any team before.

What’s Changed: Instead of being fired, coach Pat Kennedy resigned after winning just 67 games in seven seasons with the Tigers. New athletic director Mike Waddell tabbed Pittsburgh assistant Pat Skerry as the head coach, and despite optimism surrounding the new hire, Towson’s top player Isaiah Philmore transferred to Xavier, and center Braxton Dupree withdrew from school.

Key Team Stat: (76.0) Points per game allowed by Towson last year. Pick your defensive stat and the Tigers were probably worst in the conference and close to the bottom nationally: 1.133 points per possession allowed (342nd out of 345 teams), 48.6 defensive field goal percentage (338th), 40.2 defensive 3-point percentage (342nd). Baltimore pickup games feature more defense.

Key Player Stat: (3.1) Blocks per game, a league high, for 6-8 forward Robert Nwankwo in 2009-10. Nwankwo was academically ineligible last season, which was part of the reason Towson’s defense was so atrocious. His paint presence alone won’t turn the Tigers into the new Monarchs: Even with Nwankwo in 09-10, they allowed a league-worst 76.2 ppg.

Who’s Vince:  It will be interesting to see what type of improvements Nwankwo made in his year off. Fairly raw offensively as a junior, he still averaged 9.9 ppg because of his strength and athleticism. If he used the season off to develop a post move or two, Nwankwo could be one of the league’s top big men, now that Messrs Skeen, Hassell and Bowles are gone.

Who’s E: Believe it or not, Towson won four games last season. And in one of those games, Nov. 16 vs. Coppin State, RaShawn Polk scored 29 points. The 6-2, 205-pounder averaged 11.6 points per game, making him the leading returning scorer for the Tigers. He’s not the most consistent player, but he’s the type of guy who can get hot and seem unstoppable for spurts.

Entourage: In his first full year after suffering a season-ending knee surgery in 2009, 6-9 forward Erique Gumbs showed potential as a useful energy guy. And including Polk and Nwankwo, that takes care of the entire returning roster for Towson. The only other “veteran” the team will have his Marcus Damas, a sophomore transfer from Cowley Community College in Kansas. It’s all freshmen from there.

Realistic Goal: With a brutal non-conference schedule that includes games at Kansas, Michigan and Virginia, the Tigers won’t snap their streak of 15 straight losing seasons, but if they win 10 games by season’s end, that would be a small victory.

Tournament Chances: Not worth discussing

DN-R Prediction: 12^th in the CAA

Season Preview: Old Dominion Monarchs

Kent Bazemore

2010-11 Record: 27-7 (14-4, 2nd in CAA)

What happened last season: Per usual, ODU used a suffocating defense to establish themselves as a major mid-major, won its last nine games to capture the CAA championship and then lost to eventual runner-up Butler in the real first round of the NCAA tournament.

What’s Changed: Center Frank Hassell, a CAA-First teamer, and fellow tough seniors Ben Finney, Keyon Carter and Darius James all moved on, and the pearl that remained – two-time Defensive Player of the Year Kent Bazemore – broke his foot, which came a close second in the physical features news department behind coach Blaine Taylor shaving his iconic mustache.

Key Team Stat: (59.4) Rebound percentage last year for ODU, a number that is sure to take a hit without Hassell (9.4 rpg) and Finney (6.3 rpg) around. The 6-foot-9, 230-pound Chris Cooper – the only returning starter aside from Bazemore – will have to summon his inner animal for the Monarchs to dominate the glass again.

Key Player Stat: (6.0) Points per game last year for off-guard Trian Iliads, who will be the Monarchs’ leading returning scorer if they open their season without Bazemore on Nov. 12 against Northern Iowa. Iliadis is a spot-up shooter who tallied 61 percent of his points last year on 3-pointers. He’s, in no way, a go-to scoring option.

Who’s Vince: Bazemore’s left foot. It’ll be the most coddled, nursed appendage in the “757” this winter. Bazemore, a second-team All-CAA performer who averaged 12.3 points and was even more game-changing as a defender, injured the foot in a local Pro-Am league game in late July and had surgery in early August. No definitive timetable on his return has been announced, but it is likely that he will miss at least the beginning of the season. If healthy, Bazemore is POY-good. If out, ODU is stuck in tides without a paddle. The Monarchs hope he’ll be back some time in December.

Who’s E: Cooper notched double-figure points just once last year – during a 17-point loss to George Mason. Scoring isn’t what defines the Monarchs, who play at the league’s slooowest pace, but it’s still obviously a necessary component to winning. Two seasons ago, center Gerald Lee was a POY candidate, and last year Hassell was. Now most of the low-post touches will go to Cooper, who doesn’t have as refined a post game as either. But those guys both improved tremendously over time. Cooper, who averaged 5.0 ppg as a junior, has the size and athleticism to be an effective option, even though he won’t be a star.

The Entourage: Clemson transfer Donte Hill has hoards of athleticism and will fit nicely in Taylor’s grinding defense when he becomes eligible during the second semester. Whether he can be a scorer, which is much needed on this roster, is more of a question. Redshirt freshman forward Richard Ross, is also a standout athlete, and will also be ineligible for the first semester, because of academics. Junior forward Nick Wright will need to be productive, despite little experience thus far. Senior Marquel DeLancey is a downgrade from James at point guard. How Iliads gets open looks on this team, where there is no post player to draw double teams and no dangerous penetrator to drive-and-kick, is beyond me.

Realistic Goal: Tread water until health and eligibility come around, and then defend your shorts off to become a surprising 3-peat CAA champion.

Postseason tournament chances: The Monarchs have an NIT look this year.

DN-R Prediction: 5th in the CAA

Season Preview: Northeastern Huskies

Jonathan Lee

2010-11 Record: 11-20 (6-12, 10th in CAA)

What happened last season: Senior guard Chaisson Allen made the CAA First Team, but was the first player in conference history to be represented from a school that finished 10th or below. His surrounding pups were just too young, and coach Bill Coen’s team failed to notch a third straight winning season.

What’s Changed: Allen is now playing ball a few miles east of Boston in Israel, while the rest of Northeastern’s starting lineup – as well as former starter Alwayne Bigby, who missed most of last season with a broken foot – is back.

Key Team Stat: (26.3) Rebounds per game last year, which ranked dead-last in the CAA and 333rd nationally. The team’s leading rebounder was the 6-foot-4 Allen, who grabbed 6.0 per game, while young centers Ryan Pierson and Dinko Marshavelski combined for just 5.1 boards a night.

Key Player Stat: (10.9) Jump in points per game from Jonathan Lee’s freshman season to his sophomore one last year – the biggest increase of any league player. The second biggest increase? Fellow Huskies guard Joel Smith, who increased his average from 1.9 to 12.2.

Who’s Vince: Lee averaged 15.8 points per game when he played 30-plus minutes last season. Playing time shouldn’t be a problem this year for Lee, whom the Huskies hope can be Chaisson-lite. Lee takes quality shots, creates for his teammates and can shoot the 3-ball if asked (he made 47.2 percent of his 72 tries). He’s just 6-foot-2, but well-built and able to get to the rim.

Who’s E: Smith is the team’s leading returning scorer, and he’s become quite a dependable outside threat. He attempted 180 3-poitners, compared to 102 2-pointers last season, and hit the treys at a 42.8 percent clip. The 6-foot-4 swingman scored nine or more points in the Huskies’ last 16 games, and hit 15  or more nine times in that span.

Entourage: Pierson showed some range as for a guy who stands 6-10 and he should be more of a factor in the offense this year. Kashief Edwards, a 6-5 transfer forward who averaged 12.4 points at Niagara last year, will be eligible immediately. Bigby, a 6-5 wing, was one of the league’s top defenders before his injury. Forward Kauri Black started for the Huskies and averaged 6.7 ppg.

Realistic Goal: The Huskies show huge improvement after getting their paws wet last year, and they surprise the league as a frisky, above-.500 team.

Tournament chances: Very slim.

DN-R Prediction: 9th in CAA

Season Preview: Hofstra Pride

Mike Moore

2010-11 Record: 21-12 (14-4, 3rd in CAA) 

What happened last season: Charles Jenkins won his second straight player of the year – this time in a landslide – and used his granite physique to carry Hofstra to the third seed in the CAA tournament, where the one-man crew was no match for eventual champion Old Dominion in the semifinals.

What’s Changed: Jenkins was the only CAA player selected in the NBA draft (going 44^th overall to the Warriors) after Pride coach Mo Cassara unsuccessfully petitioned the NCAA to allow Jenkins a fifth year of eligibility under the stipulation of “What are we gonna do without him?”

Key Team Stat: (10.3) Turnovers per game last year, best in the CAA and eighth best nationally. Also in the discipline department, the Pride led the league with 80.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line in league games.

Key Player Stat: (14.9) Points per game last year for Moore, which was more than any other CAA second banana.

Who’s Vince: Jenkins oozed Vince last year. Now it’s Moore’s turn at a promotion. In his first season on Long Island, the Fordham transfer was a nice complement on the wing. Moore can shoot and is an effective driver, but won’t control the ball and the game like Jenkins. He was a big reason for Hofstra’s sharp free-throw shooting, leading the team with an 85.2 average on 135 attempts.

Who’s E: Asked around midseason last year if Moore was the best secondary player he ever teamed with, Jenkins credited his teammate, but with a caveat. Jenkins said no teammate would match the harmony he had with 6-foot-5 guard Nathaniel Lester.  Sidelined all season with a quad injury, Lester (who averaged  8.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in 2009-10) is now back and will have a chance to make the same impression on Moore.

The Entourage: Aside from losing Jenkins, the Pride graduated 6-10 defensive specialist Greg Washington, which will leave its frontcourt thin. David Imes (7.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and Stephen Nwaukoni (2.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg) will have to do their best to provide “bulk.” Senior Dwan McMillan (6.8 ppg) and sophomore Shemiye McLendon (6.1 ppg) came off the bench with good minutes last year, while 5-9 Rhode Island transfer Stevie Mejia will try to grab some of their playing time.

Realistic Goal: Finish in the top half of the conference again, proving that a team is more than just one star.

Postseason tournament chances: Doubtful

DN-R Prediction: 9th in the CAA

Season Preview: North Carolina Wilmington Seahawks

Keith Rendleman

2010-11 Record: 13-18 (7-11, 8th in CAA)

What happened last season: Coaching itinerant Buzz Peterson took scraps and made them competitive in his first season on the water, all while securing a massive recruiting 2011 class that will, ideally, re-infuse the dormant program.

What’s Changed: Small but spirited guard Chad Tomko is gone after a 2nd team All-CAA campaign as a senior and eight freshman enrolled at Wilmington, making the Seahawks one of the youngest teams in the nation.

Key Team Stat: (14) Number of games last season in which low-powered Wilmington scored 60 points or fewer. UNCW, which played at a slower pace than every CAA team but grind-it-out Old Dominion, went just 3-11 in those 14 games.

Key Player Stat: (58.2) Field goal percent for 6-foot-7, 215-pound forward Keith Rendleman, who led the CAA in that category last year despite being undersized in most matchups with opposing post players.

Who’s Vince: Now a junior, Rendleman will have to not only be a standout on the court, but also a babysitter for the embryonic Seahawks. Skinny but skilled, Rendleman increased his scoring production by 5.3 points per game (5.9 to 11.2) from his freshman to sophomore year, and may be in for a similar leap as a junior. Without Tomko – one of the most ball-dominant players in the league – the offense should run through its dreadlocked forward.

Who’s E: Point guard Tanner Milson won back-to-back Rookie of the Week awards before conference play began, but tailed off as his freshman season progressed. Milson, a coach’s son who lost his father to lung cancer late last January, will be better adjusted to handling a full college season as a sophomore. Without Tomko in the lineup, he will absorb much of the play-making responsibilities.

The Entourage: Guard Trevor DeLoach, now a senior, averaged 21.8 ppg in the first four February games last year (including a career-high against William & Mary), but scored just 17 combined points in the next five games to close out the season.  Sophomore forward Donte Morales (5.2 ppg, 3.9) has a solid rookie season and is one of three returning starters. Of the eight freshmen, 6-7  forward Luke Hager (whom Peterson compared to former George Mason swingman Luke Hancock) might be the biggest contributor in Year 1. Peterson also loves guard Adam Smith’s quickness.

Realistic Goal: More than half of the players are able to produce chin hair by the end of the year, when the Seahawks grow goatees to signify solidarity and win a CAA tournament game.

Postseason tournament chances: Not this year

DN-R Prediction: 11th in the CAA

In Lithuania, He’s “Denzelis”

Denzelis Bowlesas

Denzelis Bowlesas is averaging 13 points and nine rebounds per game for the Lithuanian team BC Siauliai, while teammate Cameronas Longas has yet to log time two games into the VTB United League season. Last year, these players – known in America as Denzel Bowles and Cameron Long – were two of the Colonial Athletic Association’s best for James Madison and George Mason, respectively.

Why the new names? Are they going undercover in Lithuania, on a secret mission to steal and bring home the paintings of M. K. Čiurlionis?

Apparently not. Searching for answers (and a feasible alibi for our friends Denzel and Cam), I contacted Slava Gorbachev, a Slavic Languages and Literatures professor at the University of Chicago. Gorbachev was nice enough to explain how Denzelis and Cameronas came to be.

“In a Lithuanian sentence, the ending ‘-as’ marks the singular subject if it is masculine (the ‘as’ form is the so-called nominative case, and the nominative case happened to be the citation form in this language).

To be sure, only a subset of masculine nouns in Lithuanian belong to the “-as” class.  There are also an “-is” class, an “-us” class and multiple other classes.  Their nominative (subject case) forms end in -is and -us respectively.

 When a word is borrowed into Lithuanian (even if it’s a proper name), it is absorbed into one of the above classes, or else the Lithuanians would be at a loss as to how to decline that loanword (an example of a declined word in English would be ‘he’ – ‘his’ – ‘him’, but in Lithuanian EVERY noun and pronoun is declinable).

Now, why some masculine loans become “-as” class nouns in Lithuanian, and some are “-is” or “-us” nouns, I am not sure.  It seems arbitrary to me.”

Explained David Herman, the Slavic Languages and Literatures department chair at the University of Virginia: “Apparently for phonetic reasons Lithuanian puts –is with some names instead of –as, but the meaning’s the same.  -ys is also a possibility.”

If former President George Herbert Walker Bush visited Lithuania, he’d be, according to Gorbachev, “Džordžas Herbertas Volkeris Bušas.”

So it looks like Bowles and Long are clean. And Čiurlionis’ artwork is safe. I figured the 6-foot-10 Bowlesas was a bit too tall to pull off a heist like that anyways.

Season Preview: Georgia State Panthers

Eric Buckner

2010-11 Record: (12-19, 6-12, 9th in CAA)

What happened last season: Transfer power forward Eric Buckner emerged as the team’s best player, but the defensive-minded Panthers were their typical selves, winning just 12 games for the third straight season.

What’s Changed: Coach Rod Barnes, who never exceeded a dozen victories in any of his four years at GSU, was let go just before the CAA tournament (he’s now at Cal State Bakersfield). The school replaced Barnes with Ron Hunter, a highly-respected leader who used an up-tempo style to win 293 games in 17 seasons at IUPUI.

Key Team Stat: (0) Players who averaged 10 or more points per game last season. The Panthers were the only team in the conference without a double-digit scorer, and even the only team to not return one this season.

Key Player Stat: (65.9) Buckner’s field goal percentage in wins – the highest total of any CAA regular. He made 47.2 percent of his shots in losses.

Who’s Vince: No one, really. But the cats will be in good shape if Buckner decides to be. In his first Division I season after two years at Gulf Coast C.C., the 6-foot-10, 210-pound athlete was woefully inconsistent but showed flashes of star power. He scored 23 points (on 10-of-11 shooting) at the end of non-conference play, and then posted a season-high 28 against VCU once the CAA schedule began in earnest. Those performances were both part of a season-high three-game win streak for GSU. Buckner only notched dub-figs in five of his next 17 games.

Who’s E: Could be Brandon McGee, an Indiana transfer who dropped 31 in a win against Northeastern on Feb. 12 and then scored 23 points the rest of the season (six games total). Or maybe Jihad Ali, who, like McGee, averaged just over seven points per game but without the Kilimanjaro peaks and valleys (although JMU fans remember him for a specific peak – a last-second put-back game-winner).

The Entourage: Georgia State was certainly balanced last year – nine players averaged five-plus ppg. Hunter likes to run, so he might keep a long rotation. The above guys will certainly contribute, as will Jordan DeMercy, a Florida State transfer who becomes eligible this season. Another year in the program will do talented sophomore guard Devonta White good. Don’t be surprised if Tony Kimbro Jr., a late signing by Hunter, is a considerable factor on the wing. Junior center James Vincent is one of the biggest players in the league at 6-10, 267 pounds.

Realistic Goal: Finish around .500 in conference and use that athleticism to wreak some havoc in the CAA tournament.

Postseason tournament chances: Not likely

DN-R Prediction: 7th in the CAA

Season Preview: George Mason Patriots

Ryan Pearson

2010/11 Record: 27-7 (16-2, 1st place in CAA)

What happened last year: Mason rolled off 16 straight victories from the middle of January to early March, won a school-record 27 games, went 14-0 at home, 16-2 in conference, and, after flopping in the semifinals of the conference tourney, won an NCAA game as a No. 8 seed against Villanova.

What’s Changed: Cam Long graduated, Luke Hancock transferred to Louisville and coach Jim Larranaga, the face of the program – probably the face of the school after 14 years and 273 wins there –  decided to move on to whiter beaches and coach at the U. Former Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, who reached the Final Four in 2004, took residence and Fairfax and will join a well-regarded freshman class as new blood. To compound matters, junior forward Johnny Williams underwent shoulder surgery and could miss the entire season, while guard Andre Cornelius was suspended indefinitely for a charge of credit card fraud.

Key Team Stat: (12.7) Margin of victory for Mason in 18 CAA games (73.7-61.0), by far the largest in the conference. Hofstra’s plus-3.6 was next best.

Key Player Stat: (47) Percent of Mason’s 30.2 points per game of returning scoring (not including Cornelius and Williams) that forward and preseason Player of the Year front-runner Ryan Pearson’s 14.2 ppg represents.

Who’s Vince: Pearson gets the promotion from E to Vince now with the Patriots’ top two playmakers (Long and Hancock) gone. The herky jerky left-hander scored inside and out, grabbed 6.7 rebounds a game and earned 2nd-team honors amidst an extremely balanced starting lineup. Less balance this year, and Pearson will need to do the heavy lifting.

Who’s E: This is the year when senior forward Mike Morrison needs to put it all together. The 6-foot-9, 225-pounder is limited offensively and averaged 6.8 points on five shots per game last season. There should be plenty more touches available for the high-energy big-man who seems to drift mentally sometimes. More important than his numbers might be his personal maturation as a leader on what is now such a young team.

The Entourage: As good as Mason was last year, it wasn’t particularly deep. This season any number of a guys could be the key members of a supporting cast. Guards Sherrod Wright (who redshirted last year because of a shoulder injury) and Vertrail Vaughns showed as freshmen that they could be career-long contributors, while rookie Bryon Allen never got the chance to live up to his hype. But the incoming freshman class of center Erik Copes (highly-touted nephew of new Mason assistant Roland Houston), Corey Edwards and Vaughn Gray may even bump the sophomores (to whom Hewitt owes no loyalty) lower in the rotation. The loss of Williams hurts; one CAA coach said if he could take any player of Mason’s roster, aside from Pearson, it would be Williams.

Realistic Goal: Inexperienced but talented players flourish under Hewitt and Mason tops the CAA standings again, this time with a more modest 12 league wins.

Postseason tournament chances: This team should be playing somewhere after the CAA Tournament, but its NCAA hopes aren’t great if Cornelius and Williams aren’t around.

DN-R Prediction: 2nd in CAA* (ballot was delivered days before Cornelius news broke)

A Streetballer Lights Up The Valley

Eight years ago, Randy Gill was crowned as the “Best Baller” on the MTV reality show Who’s Got Game?

Since then, Gill, aka “White Chocolate,” has been featured on And1 mixtapes and has played pickup ball with NBA stars like Kevin Durant and Allen Iverson.

Now? Gill is lighting up the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County courts on a nightly basis. The 33-year-old former Bowie State point guard moved from Washington to Harrisonburg earlier this month with his wife and two kids (they’re expecting a third within the next week or so), but his street game has translated just fine to the new setting.

Gill who said his “ears are to the street,” in search for competitive games every day, was at Spotswood High School on Tuesday night, playing with some of the Trailblazers.

After putting on a passing clinic in an up-and-down 20 minute game, Gill decided to knock down 27 straight 3-pointers from the top of the arc (I only got about 17 on camera). His motor never stops. While everyone else in the gym needed to catch a breather, Gill was busy jumping up and down, touching the wall until the next game began.

Gill said he hopes to organize basketball clinics and also bring his And1 buddies to the Convocation Center for an event. Until then, he’ll be at a local court near you, dribbling and shooting with amazing proficiency.

Here are some highlights from Gill’s stop at SHS.

Season Preview: Drexel Dragons

Samme Givens

2010-11 Record: 21-10 (11-7, 5th place in CAA)

What happened last season: The Dragons puffed their chests defensively, upset Louisville in non-conference play en-route to a 21-10 mark and lost to VCU on a Jamie Skeen buzzer-beater in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament.

What’s Changed: Not much. And that’s a good thing in college basketball. Drexel returns six of its seven rotation players and coach Bruiser Flint is back for his 10th year in Philly, making him the longest-tenured CAA coach (along with Old Dominion’s Blaine Taylor) after previous Colonial mainstay Jim Larranaga took his talents to South Beach.

Key Team Stat: (59.4) Points allowed per game last season. It was lowest in the league, and 10th nationally. The Dragons also allowed a league-low .92 points per possession.

Key Player Stat: (30.14) Usage percentage (a comprehensive formula estimating how often a team’s offensive plays involved a player) of fire-breathing junior guard Chris Fouch. Higher than Charles Jenkins… higher than Denzel Bowles… higher than Chad Tomko. Fouch, who played 28.5 minutes per game coming off the bench, was used at a higher percentage than any other CAA player.

Who’s Vince: While that stat would clearly indicate that Fouch (who will miss the start of this season because of a knee injury) is the key man for Drexel, he’s probably not. Second-teamer Samme Givens – who, unlike the third-teamer Fouch, actually starts – is the heartbeat of the Dragons. The 6-foot-5 Barkley of a power forward averaged 12.2 points and a league-best 10.2 rebounds per game last year. With a soft inside touch and lefty stroke, Givens, not Fouch, is who opponents gameplan against most.

Who’s E: Fouch can be the running-mate, a role he’s better-served to fill. The 6-foot-2, 178-pound Bronx native seemed to wear down late last season, shooting 22-for-83 (26.5 percent) in seven games before the Dragons’ CAA tournament ouster, in which he was magnificent in a comeback try. When fully healthy, he’s one of the league’s most fun offensive players to watch. Maybe sitting out until December will be good for Fouch and the Dragons, who hope to battle deep into March.

The Entourage: The Dragons have the ultimate entourage – janitorial role players who’s hands are never clean. Rangy 6-8 forward Dartaye Ruffin was an All-Rookie coming off the bench to add 8.4 ppg and 7.4 rpg. The Stoughton, Mass., native (shameless hometown plug) garnered plenty of All-CAA team votes in this year’s preseason poll. Daryl McCoy is a 6-9, 270-pound wall on defense, even if he never leaves the ground. He’s so respected defensively that Bowles called him “The Denzel stopper.” Frantz Massenat showed he could be relied upon as a freshman point guard. This year he could spread his wings a bit more. Derrick Thomas, a 6-4 junior, might be the best perimeter defender in the league, two years running. While ODU’s Kent Bazemore wins the awards with blocks and steals, Thomas straight Master-locks up his man.

Realistic Goal: Become the first team not from Virginia or Wilmington, N.C. to win the CAA since 1987 Navy. Return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1996, when Malik Rose (Mouse in the house!) strolled around Philly.

Postseason tournament chances: There’s no excuse for this team to miss out on postseason play.

DN-R Prediction: 1st in the CAA

Next Up: George Mason Patriots…